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| Gov. Dave Heineman |
I want to make you aware of Legislative Bill 1058 that would dramatically change the presidential election procedure in Nebraska. The bill proposes that our state enter into a compact agreement with other states and the combined total popular vote of the nation would require Nebraska to cast its five electoral votes for the presidential candidate who won the combined vote, even if he or she didn’t win in Nebraska.
Let me briefly explain this bill. Known as the so-called “National Popular Vote” legislation, the bill may sound good because of the name and even present an initial face value appeal. However, if enacted in our state, this bill could essentially nullify the voice of the Nebraska voters in presidential elections. Put simply, we do not want our voice invalidated when electing the next President of the United States.
Secretary of State John Gale, our state’s chief election officer, and I are strongly opposed to State Senator Tyson Larson’s LB 1058. Nebraskans want their electoral votes to count, and that won’t occur under the proposed bill. Instead, our votes for President could be mandated to go to the candidate that Nebraska voters did not elect.
For example, in the 2012 presidential election, Nebraskans overwhelmingly voted for Governor Mitt Romney for President. Under the proposed electoral scheme set forth in LB 1058, our state would have contractually been forced to cast our five electoral votes for President Barack Obama instead of Mitt Romney. That would not have been right or fair to our citizens.
This would have impacted other presidential elections in Nebraska, as well. In 1976, Nebraska would have been required to cast its electoral votes for Governor Jimmy Carter instead of President Gerald Ford. That same scenario would have happened again in the 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2008 presidential elections.
I have always been proud of Nebraska voters who take their right and responsibility to vote in national elections very seriously. I believe that once Nebraskans are faced with the facts on how this legislation would be detrimental to our voice as a state, they will see that it is a bad idea.
Currently, nine states and the District of Columbia have already agreed to enter into this Interstate Compact. Those states are Massachusetts, California, Illinois, Washington, Maryland, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey and Hawaii. We do not want these states to determine how Nebraska casts its votes.
The United States of America is built upon the 50 states and the belief in those individual states’ rights. In America, especially in election laws, we respect the right of every state to decide what policies are best for their citizens.
Nebraskans know what’s best for Nebraska. Massachusetts residents know what’s best for their state. But, Massachusetts should not determine what’s best for Nebraska and we shouldn’t decide what’s best for that state, either. LB 1058 is a bad idea and should be rejected by the Nebraska Legislature.
- Dave Heineman
2 comments:
A survey of Nebraska voters showed 67% overall support for a national popular vote for President.
Support by political affiliation was 78% among Democrats, 62% among Republicans, and 63% among others.
By congressional district, support for a national popular vote was 65% in the 1st congressional district, 66% in the 2nd district (which voted for Obama in 2008); and 72% in the 3rd District.
By gender, support for a national popular vote was 76% among women and 59% among men.
By age, support for a national popular vote, 73% among 18–29 year-olds, 67% among 30–45 year-olds, 65% among 46–65 year-olds, and 69% among those older than 65.
In a 2nd question with a 3-way choice among methods of awarding electoral votes,
* 16% favored the statewide winner-take-all system (i.e., awarding all five electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most votes statewide)
* 27% favored the current system
* 57% favored a national popular vote
Support by political affiliation for a national popular vote was still 65% among Democrats, 53% among Republicans, and 51% among others.
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With National Popular Vote, when every popular vote counts equally, successful candidates will find a middle ground of policies appealing to the wide mainstream of America. Instead of playing mostly to local concerns in Ohio and Florida, candidates finally would have to form broader platforms for broad national support. Elections wouldn't be about winning a handful of battleground states or districts.
Now political clout comes from being among the handful of battleground states. 80% of states and voters are ignored by presidential campaigns.
In 2012, 24 of the nation's 27 smallest states received no attention at all from presidential campaigns after the conventions.- including not a single dollar in presidential campaign ad money after Mitt Romney became the presumptive Republican nominee on April 11. They were ignored despite their supposed numerical advantage in the Electoral College. In fact, the 8.6 million eligible voters in Ohio received more campaign ads and campaign visits from the major party campaigns than the 42 million eligible voters in those 27 smallest states combined.
Now presidential elections ignore 12 of the 13 lowest population states (3-4 electoral votes), that are non-competitive in presidential elections. 6 regularly vote Republican (AK, ID, MT, WY, ND, and SD), and 6 regularly vote Democratic (RI, DE, HI, VT, ME, and DC) in presidential elections. Voters in states that are reliably red or blue don't matter. Candidates ignore those states and the issues they care about most.
Kerry won more electoral votes than Bush (21 versus 19) in the 12 least-populous non-battleground states, despite the fact that Bush won 650,421 popular votes compared to Kerry’s 444,115 votes. The reason is that the red states are redder than the blue states are blue. If the boundaries of the 13 least-populous states had been drawn recently, there would be accusations that they were a Democratic gerrymander.
Support for a national popular vote is strong in every smallest state surveyed in recent polls among Republicans, Democrats, and Independent voters, as well as every demographic group. Support in smaller states (3 to 5 electoral votes): AK -70%, DC -76%, DE --75%, ID -77%, ME - 77%, MT- 72%, NE - 74%, NH--69%, NE - 72%, NM - 76%, RI - 74%, SD- 71%, UT- 70%, VT - 75%, WV- 81%, and WY- 69%.
Among the 13 lowest population states, the National Popular Vote bill has passed in nine state legislative chambers, and been enacted by 4 jurisdictions.
NationalPopularVote
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